Strat....what's that? I missed the early years, but for the last two or so I don't recall noticing strat ever having an influence on me (aside from HQ radar).
If you incorporate a strong strat element it will provide greater variety and, IMO, even impact the basic horde deal itself. A certain percentage of players will, at all times, be looking to bomb, escort and intercept. If the strat is important they will find some action instead of flying over the action going on down at 2k. It will give dedicated bomber guys a purpose in life, dedicated interceptor guys a purpose (and some chance of actual action) and even give those p-51 or nothing guys a historical option beyond porking a field.
I wonder, though, if HTC even sees the current MA game play as a problem. And, I imagine TOD is the new baby now that will be getting most of the serious infrastructure/programming attention. I suppose it could be argued that TOD will fill these needs, but I don't necessarily see too much real crossover between the typical MA player and future TOD player (with its strong role-playing format). I'll probably do both, but MA with real strat is, at least for me, more important than TOD.
Charon